At the University of Groningen, Verpoorte and colleagues will develop an innovative technology platform that integrates nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics and micro-imaging with microfluidic tissue-slice perfusion culture. This platform is poised to revolutionise life science research by providing unprecedented local insight into physiological processes in intact tissues under highly controlled conditions. The team will focus on liver tissue-slice culture, with the immediate target of elucidating the mechanism of liver damage by drug-induced cholestasis. In the long term, the new technology will find wide application in other tissues, including intestinal, pancreatic, and brain slices. It will form the foundation of a new approach in the life sciences, allowing the detailed metabolic study of tissues at the system level.
Groningen’s role in the project
